Hens or roosters

[Staceyglendoon]

Hi all Forgive my ignorance in posting this but we are first time chicken owners. We bought our 4 chicks at 3 weeks old. We were told that the chickens were all female and that they were australorps. Given the colour of their feathers i would say its quite clear we were dooped breed wise (according to my research they look a lot like lohmans?

). My question is however do you think we have pullets or roosters on our hands? Thanks in advance!

 

[aquabum]

Ummm, definitely not Austrolorps. Haha. But if they have a sex link gene in them, the red on the wing feathers on the one could mean a cockerel. But all the feathers look like Pullets to me.

 

[LlamaGirl4]

Definetly not Australorps but all pullets

 

[sourland]

The first bird is a pullet. I believe that the other 3 are cockerels.

 

[keesmom]

Only the first one is a pullet.

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

I'm having trouble too distinguishing sex on my Oriental Gamefowl chicks.... they are about 2 months old now. I'm just going by their comb but at this stage in development they all pretty much look the same.

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

Red Sex Links

The first bird is the pullet, the others are cockerels.

 

[Staceyglendoon]

Is it their feathers or comb development that makes you think they are cockerals? Thanks everyone

 

[Staceyglendoon]

I'm having trouble too distinguishing sex on my Oriental Gamefowl chicks.... they are about 2 months old now. I'm just going by their comb but at this stage in development they all pretty much look the same.

Thats the trouble I'm having too. Even the thickness of their legs looks to the same to me. Fingers crossed

 

[keesmom]

Is it their feathers or comb development that makes you think they are cockerals? Thanks everyone

Both. Pullets only develop that much comb color at 20+ weeks of age. Anything with large red combs at their age is male. Aside from that there is the red leaking through on the shoulders of 2 - that's a male only trait.

Aside from that they are red sex links, and are created specifically because the chicks can be sexed at hatch by down color. Pullet chicks are reddish, and mature into hens that are mostly red with some white. Cockerel chicks are white and mature into white roosters with varying degrees of red leakage in the wings. I wouldn't be going back to that seller again.

Thats the trouble I'm having too. Even the thickness of their legs looks to the same to me. Fingers crossed

There's no doubt in the sexes of your birds. Unfortunately you're going to have to do something with all those males, and probably sooner rather than later.